There Are Four Reasons We’ve Lost The Argument Over Tax Increases On The Wealthy

How is it that the GOP is so feckless and ineffective that it can’t even convince the 48% who voted for Romney that raising taxes on those making over $250,000 is both pointless and bad policy:

Sixty percent of all Americans back higher taxes on higher incomes in the new Post-ABC data. Earlier this month, an identical 60 percent of voters in the presidential election said income taxes should be raised on income over $250,000, according to the national exit poll.

Only 37% oppose the tax hike.

Other than a complete inability to communicate, there’s no rhyme or reason for this. Facts, logic, and history are all with us in this debate, but we still can’t make our case to more than 37% of adults?

It’s not hard to explain how we’re losing this argument with the American people.

#1) We tell the American people that deficit control should be our #1 priority, they’ve listened and they believe that tax increases on the wealthy should be part of that process.

#2) Democrats have been telling the American people that raising taxes on the rich is going to fix our deficit problems. This isn’t true, but a lot of people believe it.

#3) It’s very easy to agree to raise OTHER PEOPLE’s taxes if your taxes aren’t impacted. If you’re a middle class American who pays no income taxes and someone tells you that we can fix all of our problems by taxing the rich a little more, while you won’t have to pay anything else, it’s something you WANT to believe.

#4) The alternative to raising taxes is cutting spending and the three biggest programs are Defense, Social Security and Medicare. Despite agreeing to a scenario that they knew would lead to defense cuts last year, Republicans in Congress didn’t mean it and now oppose cuts to defense. Meanwhile, cuts to Social Security and Medicare are unpopular because everyone gets a cut of that.

Only when Americans have to choose between tax increases and benefit cuts will they start to care about tax increases again.